1 Job responded:
2 Surely you are the people,and wisdom will die with you.
3 I am also intelligent;I’m not inferior to you.Who isn’t like these people?
4 I’m a joke to friendswho called to God and he answered;the innocent and blameless one is a joke,
5 a torch of contempt to one who is idle,a fixed point for slipping feet.
6 Raiders’ tents are prosperousand God’s provokers secure,who carry God in their hands.
7 But ask Behemoth, and he will teach you,the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
8 or talk to earth, and it will teach you;the fish of the sea will recount it for you.
9 Among all these, who hasn’t knownthat the Lord’s hand did this?
10 In whose grasp is the life of every thing,the breath of every person?
11 Doesn’t the ear test wordsand the palate taste food?
12 "In old age is wisdom;understanding in a long life."
13 With him are wisdom and power;counsel and understanding are his.
14 If he tears down, it can’t be rebuilt;if he ties a person up, he can’t be set free.
15 If he restricts water, they have drought;if he lets it loose, it overturns the land.
16 With him are might and success;the deceiver and the deceived are his.
17 He leads advisors away barefoot;makes madmen of judges;
18 unties the belt of kings,binds a garment around their loins;
19 leads priests away barefoot;overthrows the well-established;
20 silences the talk of trusted people;takes away elders’ discernment;
21 pours contempt on royalty;loosens the belt of the strong;
22 discloses deep secrets of darkness,makes utter darkness enter the light;
23 makes nations prominent and destroys them,expands nations and leads them astray;
24 takes away the power to think from earth’s leaders,making them wander in untraveled wastelands.
25 They feel their way in the dark without light;he makes them stumble like drunks.